Duke Nukem (character)
' 'Duke Nukem is a fictional character and action hero who has been the protagonist in over a dozen video games, the fictional universe in which they take place and a proposed upcoming live action science fiction and horror or action feature film. Numerous figurines of the character have been produced. The character first appeared in the 1991 video game Duke Nukem (also temporarily known as "Duke Nukum") developed by Apogee Software. He has since starred in multiple sequels developed by 3D Realms, and presently by Gearbox Software who have since bought the rights to Duke Nukem and own the intellectual property.Gearbox Announces: “We Own Duke Nukem” The character was created by video game developers Todd Replogle, Jim Norwood, George Broussard, and Scott Miller of Apogee Software. The character was redesigned into the present tough guy incarnation by George Broussard and Allen H. Blum III for the 1996 game Duke Nukem 3D. In the dozen or so Duke Nukem games since Duke Nukem 3D, this incarnation of the character has been constant, and voiced by voice actor Jon St. John. A sequel to Duke Nukem 3D, Duke Nukem Forever, had been in development hell since at least 1997. The game is scheduled to be released in the US on June 14th 2011 and worldwide on June 10th 2011. History Duke Nukem was introduced to the world as the title character of the Apogee platform game Duke Nukem I, which was published in 1991. This game is a side-scrolling platform game, and contained three episodes, the first of which was distributed as shareware. Many staples of a Duke Nukem game were established here, such as Duke's general appearance, the necessity of collecting keys/access cards, various pick-up items (although the types of items were fairly generic, and some have never been seen since) and many destructible objects. It also introduced a wide variety of enemies to fight against, although most if not all of these enemies would be absent/heavily redesigned in the sequels. Duke Nukem I is set in the "near future" of 1997, and depicts Duke's attempts to thwart the evil megalomaniac Dr. Proton and his army of Techbots. The first episode shows Duke's journey through the devastated city, before the second episode takes him to Dr. Proton's secret moonbase. Finally, Duke follows Dr. Proton to the future and puts a permanent end to his plans to take over the world. The first sequel, Duke Nukem II was released in 1993, and featured many improvements on the original, such as sloped surfaces, more colours and multiple weapons to use (although only one could be carried at a time). It is still a side-scrolling platform game, like the original. In this game, Duke faces off against the alien race known as the Rigelatins, who are attempting to enslave Earth. They kidnap Duke during an interview for his new autobiography "Why I'm So Great", in an attempt to use his brain to help direct the attack on Earth. Duke escapes, and proceeds to defeat the aliens, before finally escaping back to Earth. The third installment of the Duke Nukem franchise is perhaps the most notable, and has built up a large following and inspired many spin-off games. Duke Nukem 3D is a first-person 3D shooter game, and was released in 1996. The game picks up where Duke Nukem II ends, with Duke being shot down by unknown assailants and being forced to eject onto a rooftop while his escape pod crashes into a nearby building. He then proceeds to "kick ass and chew bubblegum", but quickly finds that he is "all out of gum". It revolutionized the Duke Nukem franchise, and introduced most, if not all, of what Duke fans love. Duke now has a distinct personality, which is shown through his many soundclips and the few cutscenes in the game. A whole host of weapons, some of which are still unique to this day, and a variety of pick-ups including Night Vision Goggles and a Portable Medkit all debuted here, although it can be argued that the Jetpack is the favourite amongst players. Appearance Duke is a large, muscled man who appears to be in his late twenties or early thirties, with a blond flat-top, 80's style black sunglasses and a bodybuilder physique. It is said that he was 29 years old in the 1996 Duke Nukem 3D, but this is rather unclear. He wears a red muscle-shirt, blue jeans, black combat boots and black fingerless leather gloves. He also wears a bandolier which, amongst other things, contains his Portable Medkit, access cards, Steroids, Pipebombs and the ammo for his Chaingun Cannon, as well as all the ammo for all his other weapons. His signature items are the Jetpack and his black sunglasses, along with his golden beautifully engraved Colt 1911 handgun. Also, we must not forget his Mighty Boot or the Nuke logo - like the one on his belt buckle. Personality right|thumb|125px|''Duke Nukem'' in [[Duke Nukem II.]] Duke didn't show much of his personality during the first two games, but it was shown that Duke was a "self-proclaimed hero " initially hired by the CIA to stop Dr. Proton. Duke Nukem 3D revealed Duke as a hyper-masculine, egotistical, machismo-filled womanizer. His goal was to kill the aliens that had kidnapped Earth's women. Duke is not afraid to face any kind of alien that comes in his way. He is a confident, aggressive, and frequently politically incorrect muscle-man who, although not technically superhuman, nonetheless manages to achieve incredible physical feats of violence and conquest through sheer machismo and expertise with automatic weapons. Like the character played by Bruce Campbell, Nukem is also a smart-mouth (although Duke's humor is somewhat less sarcastic and more straightforwardly aggressive; a few of Duke Nukem 3D's phrases are taken directly from the Campbell film Army of Darkness), and his sneering visage is often found speaking one-liners while slaughtering his enemies. He is also apparently extremely sexually adept and irresistible to women, and circumstances generally find him surrounded by many buxom women (though certain signs in the games seem to indicate a girlfriend - current or ex - named Lani, a possible reference to sound engineer and voice actress Lani Minella). There is also an inside joke that circulated on the internet that compares Duke's looks to that of former NFL player Howie Long. He is cool and he knows it. He is considered to be the ultimate alien asskicker, who loves big, automatic weapons and babes. Women are attracted to him like magnets. He is really a macho. He also enjoys a cigar and occasionally is seen smoking one. Duke Nukem's character is a pastiche of a number of Hollywood-action heroes, such as those played by John Wayne, Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sylvester Stallone, as well as Kurt Russell's character from Big Trouble In Little China, Roddy Piper's character from They Live, and Ash Williams from the Evil Dead series. Sam "Serious" ''Stone, the main character of ''Serious Sam is a homage to Duke Nukem. Video games First games Duke Nukem was initially created in the late 1980s by chief programmer Todd Replogle of Apogee Software (now 3D Realms) as the protagonist for the video game he was designing entitled Metal Future set in the then near future of 1997. After hearing the character's name, producer and founder of Apogee, Scott Miller, suggested the game should have the same name. Miller helped design the character around his thoughts about the name. Artwork was done by George Broussard, Allen H. Blum III, and Jim Norwood. However, the character was somewhat different in this original incarnation. Although he was still blonde and stocky, in the original game Duke Nukem was a self-proclaimed hero hired by the CIA, to stop madman Dr. Proton who has sieged earth's largest city with his robotic servants the Techbots. The original game was released as Duke Nukem in 1991 as a two dimensional platform game. This game was written for the IBM PC compatible, and featured 320×200, 16-color EGA graphics with vertical and horizontal scrolling. The original game had three episodes, the first distributed as shareware. Duke Nukem does not feature voices, and Duke spoke with mere text display on the screen such as "I'm gonna kick butt". The sequel, Duke Nukem II, was released two years later and the same mostly-silent incarnation of the character was used, although he is now a hailed American hero. Duke Nukem must protect Earth from an army of Rigelatins who plan to imprint his brain patterns on their war computer. The sequel was over four times larger and took advantage of 256-color VGA graphics, MIDI music, and digitized sound. Only 16 colors were actually used on-screen at once; however, three different 16-color palettes were used. Duke Nukem II features an intro with one line spoken by Joe Siegler ("I'm Back"), and a death scream by character co-creator Todd Replogle. Title problems The first Duke Nukem game was titled Duke Nukem, but Apogee learned that this name might have already been trademarked for the Duke Nukem character in Captain Planet and the Planeteers, so they changed it to Duke Nukum for the 2.0 revision. The name was later discovered not to be trademarked, so the spelling Duke Nukem was restored for Duke Nukem II and all successive Duke games. 3D era The third game in the series was the first-person shoote entitled Duke Nukem 3D and was released in 1996. The game was set in the early 21st century with Duke battling with mutants and aliens. The game has improved graphics. Duke Nukem 3D was released for MS-DOS, Mac OS, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, game.com, Sega Genesis, Nintendo 64, and later re-released in 2008 for Xbox Live Arcade and for the iPhone/iPod Touch and Nokia N900 in 2009. Duke Nukem 3D is perhaps the most recognized Duke Nukem game, with over a dozen expansion packs. For Duke Nukem 3D the character of Duke Nukem was dramatically redesigned by George Broussard and Allen Blum to become the macho, wise-cracking character better known today. Duke Nukem 3D was one of the most controversial games at the time due to its strong language, sexual/misogynistic content, cultural stereotypes, and strong violence. Duke Nukem 3D, and the dozen or so subsequent Duke Nukem games, feature Jon St. John as the voice of Duke Nukem. Duke Nukem 3D was the first game in which the character has a significant speaking role. Games starring Duke Nukem Main series *Duke Nukem I *Duke Nukem II *Duke Nukem 3D *Duke Nukem Forever Duke Nukem 3D expansion packs *Duke Caribbean: Life's A Beach *Duke: Nuclear Winter *Duke it out in D.C. *Duke Xtreme *Duke!ZONE *Duke!ZONE II *Duke Assault Duke Nukem 3D ports *Duke Nukem 64 *Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown *Duke Nukem 3D (Sega Saturn) *Duke Nukem 3D (XBLA) *Duke Nukem 3D (Mega Drive) *Duke Nukem 3D (Game.com) Spin-offs *Duke Nukem: Time To Kill *Duke Nukem: Zero Hour *Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes *Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project *Duke Nukem (GBC) *Duke Nukem Advance *Duke Nukem Mobile *Duke Nukem Mobile 3D *Duke Nukem Mobile: Bikini Project *Duke Nukem Arena *Duke Begins Other games with Duke Nukem Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure Duke Nukem can be found in Cosmo's Cosmic Adventures. He appears in Episode 2, Level 7. If you put a bomb where he is stuck in the ice, then he will be freed. Here is their conversation: Cosmo: Yikes! Who are you? Duke: I'm Duke Nukum, green alien dude. Until you rescued me, I was stopped cold by an alien invasion force. Cosmo: Wow! Can you help rescue my parents? Duke: Sorry, kid, I've got to save the galaxy... ...but I can give you something that will help you out. Cosmo: Thanks, Mr. Nukum, and good luck on your Mission. Duke: Just look for me in my next exciting adventure, Duke Nukum II! Cosmo: Bye. Duke: See ya... and have those spots checked...! Gallery Image:Duke Cosmo's Cosmic 1.PNG Image:Duke Cosmo's Cosmic 2.PNG Image:Duke Cosmo's Cosmic 3.PNG Bio Menace There is an Easter egg in episode two. In the 10th level, "Specimens Lab", it is possible to enter a "Secret Door" and meet the programmers running the game "Behind the scenes". In exchange for not telling anyone, they let the player grab some goodies from their storeroom, which is filled with various items from Apogee's Bio Menace, Duke Nukem I and Commander Keen as well as a portrait of Duke Nukem from Duke Nukem I on the wall. The programmer team can be attacked, but they are invulnerable and retaliate fiercely. Serious Sam II Apart from the character of Sam "Serious" Stone being inspired by Duke Nukem; Duke has been referenced a couple of times in Serious Sam II. During one of the cutscenes in the game one of the three members of the Sirian Great Council, Jebediah is talking about how he thinks that Sam is "the one". Rajiev replies "you also thought that blondie guy was the one." then Jebediah says "yeah but he was taking FOREVER" which was undoubtedly a direct reference to Duke Nukem as well as Duke Nukem Forever's infamous development time. Continuing the Duke Nukem references one of the easter egg's in the game involves a Duke skeleton hanging from a tree which can be found in the level "Planet Magnor: Forsaken Compound" . Upon finding it NETRICSA will say "Secret Duke's skeleton has been found!" and Serious Sam himself will say "Dude, you've been hanging here, like,FOREVER"; the Skeleton even has blonde hair. Death Rally Duke Nukem is one of the racers in the game. Balls of Steel The game includes a table based on the Apogee/3D Realms video game Duke Nukem 3D, including graphics from that game and original voice-overs by Nukem actor Jon St. John. Pinball missions include fighting monsters like octabrains and Pig Cops, and using powerups such as jetpacks and the Holoduke, from the Duke Nukem 3D video game. Graphics of a pinball game named Balls of Steel appear in Duke Nukem 3D itself, in the first level, Hollywood Holocaust, when Duke encounters the table. Shadow Warrior While Duke Nukem himself doesn't appear in the game. At the start of one of the levels Lo Wang says "Holy cow! Look like Duke Nukem! HAHAHA!". He says this because of all the explosions happening at that particular moment, which IS pretty Duke-like. Blood In the first episode, in the fourth level (the Carnival), a mutilated corpse of Duke Nukem could be found, hanged to the ceiling. When interacted with, Caleb swings the corpse, mocking him by saying "Shake It, Baby". Cancelled games Duke Nukem: Endangered Species was announced in January 2001. It was to be a hunting game where the player could hunt everything from dinosaurs to snakes, using an improved version of the engine used in the Carnivores series. The game was cancelled in December of that year. The company that had been developing the game, Ukraine-based developer Action Forms, went on to develop its own game, Vivisector: Beast Inside (originally titled Vivisector: Creatures of Doctor Moreau) instead. A Duke Nukem Forever side-scroller game was also Cancelled. A PS2 game called Duke Nukem D-Day (also known as Duke Nukem: Man Of Valor), was announced in 1999, renowned for having one of the longest development cycles of any title in the PlayStation 2's considerable history. Long rumored to implement the same technology that powered the PC version of Unreal, the game sometimes erroneously referred to as Duke Nukem Forever PS2 (this console title was not to be a port of the PC game, and instead was a new creation by developer n-Space) consistently battled crippling delays; often putting in question its status as an active or cancelled game. The project was finally abandoned in 2003. Future The next installment in the video game series, Duke Nukem Forever, has been in development hell for over a decade after being announced in early 1997. DNF was announced in April 1997, and promotional information for the game was released in one form or another in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2007, 2008 and 2009. Due to this, the game had been subject to intense speculation and has won several vaporware awards. The development team was terminated in May 2009, but according to 3d Realms, the project has not officially been cancelled and the game is still in development. Although Take-Two Interactive still owns the publishing rights to the game, they do not have an agreement with 3D Realms to provide funding for the game's continued development. A lawsuit has been filed by Take-Two Interactive against 3D Realms over their failure to finish development of the game. The lawsuit has reached a "settlement" as of May 2010. Gearbox Software has since bought the rights and intellectual property of the franchise and have been working on the project since 2009. A playable demo has been shown at PAX and they have given the release timeframe of May 3, 2011 in the US, and May 6th internationally on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. On January 21, an official release trailer was unveiled by 2K Games, showing the world that "the King" was truly back with a confirmed release date of May 3, 2011 for North America. Soundtracks Several Duke Nukem games contained popular tracks from well known bands, a greatest hits was released in 1999, with the following track listing: # Duke Nukem Theme - Megadeth # Cinnamon Girl - Type O Negative (previously unreleased in U.S.) # What U See Is What U Get - Xzibit # Blisters - Coal Chamber (previously unreleased in U.S.) # Song 10 - Zebrahead # The Thing I Hate - Stabbing Westward # It's Yourz - Wu-Tang Clan # Screaming from the Sky - Slayer # New World Order - Megadeth (previously unreleased) # Stone Crazy - The Beatnuts # Land of the Free Disease - Corrosion of Conformity (previously unreleased) Toy line / action figurines Duke Nukem was a short-lived toy line from defunct toy company ReSaurus. Primarily centered around Duke Nukem 3D, the line featured three versions of Duke (with a fourth "internet only" Duke that came with a CD-ROM and freezethrower accessory), the Pigcop, Octabrain, and Battlelord. The toys were prone to breakage (Duke's legs were held on by a thin plastic rod which was easy to snap and the Octabrain had numerous fragile points). More toys were planned to coincide with the release of Duke Nukem Forever, but the game's delay halted these toys, and ReSaurus eventually went out of business. Proposed feature film In the late 1990s, it was announced that Hollywood film producer Lawrence Kasanof (Mortal Kombat, Class of 1999) was working on a Duke Nukem film.The plot was to feature aliens invading Duke's favorite strip club. However the Kasanoff's Nukem film never got past the pre-production phase for numerous reasons, mainly funding issues. Plans for a live action Duke Nukem movie to be produced by Kasanoff's company Threshold Entertainment were announced in 2001, but the film never made it to production. In 2008, Max Payne producer Scott Faye has revealed to IGN.com that he is planning to bring Duke Nukem to the big screen. Faye, who runs production company Depth Entertainment, said he hopes to compliment these with "a Duke film scenario that will compel a studio to finance a feature version... Certainly, there's a large audience that knows and loves this character." He went on: "We're expanding Duke's 'storyverse' in a very significant major way without abandoning or negating any element that's being used to introduce Duke to the next-gen platforms." This can be found here During mid 2009 an interview on Gamasutra revealed that a Duke Nukem movie is currently in pre-production. Promotion and reception Duke ranked number sixty-seven on UGO.com's "Top 100 Heroes of All Time" list, which noted while borrowing elements from Ash Williams and They Live, the character was iconic, adding "...if you want a politically incorrect first person shooter, Nukem's the way to go, and what better player substitute than a muscle bound, chauvinist with violent tendencies?" He is also regarded as the coolest video game character ever by ScrewAttack.com. Category:Characters